IAN LADYMAN ON KLOPP’S MATCH-WINNERS

THE reason a team 17 points off the top of their domestic league can go so far in a competition that is supposed to represent the best that European football has to offer is because Liverpool have match-winners in their ranks.

This was an unstinting physical effort from Jurgen Klopp’s side on a night when they were outplayed for 45 minutes. But Liverpool have players who can score out of nowhere and two of them ultimately won them this game.

Was Mo Salah genuinely fit to start? For long periods it didn’t seem so. But in the moment that mattered Salah came alive, forcing the ball from the grasp of City goalkeeper Ederson and then showing just enough speed off the mark to turn it into the goal before defensive cover arrived.

Roberto Firmino’s goal was also telling. The Brazilian worked his socks off defensively all night and it was fitting that his goal came about because he wouldn’t give City defender Nicolas Otamendi a second of peace in possession. Liverpool will be underdogs along with Roma in the semis but if these players are fit they will always have a chance.

STERLING’S REDEMPTION

Much of the talk after City’s first goal was about whether Raheem Sterling fouled Virgil van Dijk. After a dozen replays, it is still impossible to tell, suggesting that the infringement was all in the mind of the Liverpool defender.

One thing is certain: one of the players involved in the incident stopped playing and the other did not. Sterling could be forgiven for starting this game a little tentatively given that his failures in front of goal played such a large part in City collapsing against Manchester United at the weekend.

Last week at Anfield, meanwhile, Sterling didn’t even make Pep Guardiola’s starting XI. But here the England forward was fast out of the blocks and the way that he chased down Van Dijk and then stayed on his feet to funnel the ball forward said everything for the perfect way that City started. Van Dijk was guilty of one of football’s great sins in not playing to the whistle. Sterling’s alertness made him look even more foolish.

WAS GUARDIOLA RIGHT?

The City manager had spoken nervously about Spanish referee Antonio Mateu Lahoz after believing his team were hard done by when he officiated last season’s quarter-final against Monaco. One wonders how such talk helps a manager before a big game but it did seem that Guardiola’s reservations about Señor Lahoz may have been right.

What marks the really good refs out from the rest is that they exude calmness and control. Here Lahoz had the countenance of a traffic policeman standing in the middle of a roundabout at rush hour. At times he seemed to be guessing and the only way he seemed to feel he could impose any kind of authority was by waving yellow cards at people. Predictably, it had the opposite effect. He may have got two penalty decisions wrong and why he chalked off Leroy Sane’s ‘goal’ in the first half, only he will know. Apart from all that, he was terrific.

THE CITY PRESS

Here we are in April and still City are at it. We have wondered at times at the energy and determination evident in the way that Liverpool play and it was certainly one of the impressive aspects of their 4-3 victory over City in the Premier League in January.

Here, though, it was City who went all terrier on us, hounding red shirts and forcing Klopp’s players to play passes and long balls that would not have been part of their plan.

City pressed from front to back with players like Kevin De Bruyne leading the way. It was a fantastic effort that ultimately went unrewarded and that takes admirable fitness but also a rare understanding of what exactly a coach wants you to do.

HOME AND AWAY JAMES

James Milner is booed every time he comes back to the Etihad, which is a shame for a player who did so much for City in the years when the club were building towards their current level of excellence. Not that it ever seems to affect him.

The 32-year-old would probably not have started either of these games had Emre Can been fit. But the Yorkshireman has never been one to complain about his place in the grand scheme of things and here he was just as influential as he had been in the first leg.

You only have to stand next to Milner to realise how well he looks after himself — he never touches alcohol — and he was a constant source of energy and calm as he did his best to protect his back four during a first half that could have seen Liverpool’s doors blown off. In the first half, he blocked shots from the dangerous Bernardo Silva when the temptation to dive in and tackle must have been overwhelming.